Pistons use their voodoo to stop the Magic in Orlando

The Pistons handled the Orlando Magic Monday night thanks to some great performance by Tayshaun Prince, Tracy McGrady and a career high for Austin Daye. Each put up 20 points, but it was Daye’s clutch shots that really propelled the Pistons their 103-96 over the Magic

Key Points:

20 x 3

T-mac with 14 points in the first quarter alone. Feb 08

Great defense from the Pistons, who recorded 9 steals on the night.

Can someone tell Dwight Howard that he doesn’t have to manhandle pleaple when he’s trying to put a foul on someone.

Career high 20 for Austin Daye with 9 of those coming in the fourth quarter when the Magic were closing in. Daye added 7 boards and 2 steals in 34 minutes on the floor.

Photo/Getty Images editing Need4Sheed.com

The Pistons led by 10 at the half and again by 10 at the start of the fourth. No third quarter collapse.

Ben Wallace stepped in off the bench to help contain Dwight Howard and help the Pistons on the boards. Wallace with 11 boards and a ton of tips in 19 minutes on the floor.

This was posed by many people on Twitter during the game. How many third quarter collapses have the Pistons had since Rip has been on the bench?

Austin ankle breaker.

Great win for Detroit and a fun game to watch. So fun that I really though George Blaha was going to have an aneurism. He was on fire with his calls all night long. I saved the game and have to pull some audio for those who didn’t get to see or hear his broadcast.

Related

15 Responses to "Pistons use their voodoo to stop the Magic in Orlando"

awwww… the highlight recap video was good until they showed Rip. After that I started to feel sorry for him. I don’t know about you guys, but it’s kind of hard to celebrate a win when somebody from the team is not as happy about it as the other guys. Well at least Q didn’t make Rip his human victory cigar.

What a fun game! As I posted on Twitter, been a long time since I have yelled at the TV like that during a Pistons game. Felt like the good old days. Now my new neighbors know who moved in next to them!

But this recent stretch (Jersey stinker aside) has me thinking playoffs. Look at our schedule the rest of the way. A LOT of games against the lesser of the East with some games at the Palace against mid-range Western teams. This should be a playoff team, I thought so at the beginning of the season and believe so more than ever now. A lot of fun watching Daye and Monroe play key roles and as credit to Stuckey for the HUGE Chauncey-like cool at the free throw line when we needed them the most in crunch time.

Things are getting fun again in Piston-land. If only we could make the Rip sideshow go away.

Where’s all my Austin Daye haters at!? Do yall reeallly want Rip back in the rotation??? The only problem I got with the Rip situation is that his trade value has gone from low to nada. Joe might have to end up paying someone to take him off our hands.

From ESPN Insider: Greg Monroe is joining rookie elite
This year’s crop of rookies has been a bust thus far. Aside from Blake Griffin and John Wall, and second-round surprise Landry Fields, first-year players have provided relatively little production for their teams. It may be time to add Greg Monroe to that list of exceptions. The Detroit center has stepped up as a starter in the month of January, moving up to fourth among rookies in estimated wins added, John Hollinger’s measure of player value. He’s fifth in Basketball Prospectus’ wins above replacement player, trailing the aforementioned three players and Al-Farouq Aminu of the Los Angeles Clippers.

During the month, Monroe has averaged 10.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. His performance was highlighted by four consecutive double-doubles. Monroe benefited from additional playing time with Ben Wallace sidelined by an ankle injury, averaging 33.9 minutes per game after playing just 19.3 minutes a night during November and December. Even accounting for the playing time, however, Monroe has been more effective as he adjusts to the NBA game.

Monroe has been strong on the glass all season. He’s grabbed 16.0 percent of all available rebounds, good for fourth among rookies, and that figure has not changed appreciably in the month of January. What has improved has been Monroe’s accuracy. He shot 44 percent from the field in November and December, but has made 58.5 percent of his attempts this month.

Instead of operating in the high post as he often did at Georgetown, Monroe has been able to hang around the basket to finish feeds from teammates or convert second chances. According to Hoopdata.com, two-thirds of Monroe’s field goal attempts this season have come at the rim. In the month of January, he’s been hitting 76.9 percent of those shots. While he surely will not continue to shoot such a high percentage — Wilson Chandler and Tayshaun Prince are the lone two players so accurate at the rim in at least 100 shot attempts this season — Monroe’s judicious shot selection should enable him to keep his shooting percentage safely above 50 percent. In combination with his rebounding, that will make him valuable to the Pistons, who have gone 5-6 this month as they try to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race.